Thurman relates to role

As tall and radiant as you'd imagine her, Uma Thurman enters the conference room at the offices of the California Film Institute in San Rafael, Calif., and makes a beeline for the snack spread.

"I have a real sweet tooth," she smiles as she collects a few small cupcakes and cookies onto a plastic plate -- carefully, as she has a removable cast on her right wrist due to a recent surgery -- and sits down for a chat. Asked if she is a chocoholic, she says, "Only if it's cheap chocolate. Like M&M's."

Thurman was collecting a career tribute at the Mill Valley Film Festival earlier this month, near where she filmed much of the science-fiction cult classic "Gattaca" a dozen years before.

The Massachusetts-raised actress, known for her work with Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction," for which she garnered her only Academy Award nomination, and the "Kill Bill" movies) and her former marriage to "Gattaca" co-star Ethan Hawke, presented her new film, "Motherhood."

Directed by Katherine Diekmann and co-starring Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver, the film stars

Thurman as a Greenwich Village mother of two (which Thurman has in common with her character) who tries to fulfill her writing ambitions by blogging about the difficult challenges of daily domestic life.

Q: You play a 40-ish mother in "Motherhood." What attracted you to the script?

A: I found one familiar scenario and aspect after another in such a deeply personal way. It made me laugh my head off. ... I happen to raise two children in the same neighborhood, so even though this has nothing to do with my own personal story, it's the backdrop in a way of my own home movie that I didn't shoot. It's the same playground I spent time in, streets I pushed strollers down. It's something I had to do.

Q: You've worked with big-name directors such as Tarantino, Gus Van Sant and John Woo. How was Katherine Diekmann?

A: I've worked with a lot of writer-directors, and I've worked with a lot the first or second time out. I've got a pretty good eye, I think. If there's a really inherent voice there, it needs to be heard. Her script, to me, spoke volumes. There was such a wonderfully dry, ironic wit -- an acerbic sense of humor present in her writing. Very economical. That already is a sign of a really honed voice.

Q: Are you the type to suggest revisions, especially to less experienced talent?

A: No. I've worked with some young actors, and they'd say, "Oh, I wouldn't use that word," and you just want to kill yourself. Word selection is part of what defines you as a person. I'm very obsessed with it. It's like reading a poem -- and I've read many, and not understood them -- I just sort of sit there and peel through the words until I understand, reaching out and getting the experience of reaching other people's writing.

Q: OK, so what happened to your wrist?

A: I fell down, like most people. (Laughs) I had a plate put inside when I'd broken it a few years ago, and it started to affect me, give me numbness.

Q: Ever get injured on the set of a movie?

A: Many times! They were pretty rough. ... I've been hit in the face with swords, I broke a hand swinging on a rope, and a guy in armor fell on me.

Q: How does it feel to get a lifetime achievement award while still in your 30s?

A: (Laughs) I have been working since the age of 16. By next year, when I turn 40, it'll be 24 years. I do feel like a beginner, but I've certainly dedicated quite a bit of time.